Pages

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Impressions #20: Shin Megami Tensei IV

And now,
we have reached the end of a long, long “Season of ATLUS”. After
investing untold hundreds of hours playing ATLUS games and
subsequently writing about them, we have reached the end of my queue.
The last game in my list also happens to be one of the first I
purchased for my 3DS: Shin Megami Tensei IV (SMT IV). Released in May
of 2013, SMT IV attempted to bridge the gap between the classic feel
of Shin Megami Tensei and the burgeoning market growing as a result
of the success of the third and fourth entries of the Persona
franchise. The end result is something that intriguingly shows how
ATLUS has grown as a development house over the years.

As a
Shin Megami Tensei game, many of the franchise staples have been
brought back in full force. Players recruit demons into their party
and use them to fight against other demons. The Press Turn System,
which I have discussed severaltimesbefore,
makes a return as well. In order to make sure that the player party
is as strong as possible, it is also necessary to regularly fuse
demons together to create new ones. None of this will be surprising
to anybody who has played an SMT game or read about them. These are
classic elements one fans have grown to expect.

However,
a lot of these elements have been retooled in order to improve the
overall accessibility of the game. In particular, the fusion system
received a huge update. Previous SMT games had the player go to a
specific location in order to fuse demons together. They could also
register demons in a compendium to be re-summoned later for a fee.
When fusing, old games had a menu displaying all the demons possessed
by the player, and it would display the expected result of the
fusion. Skills inherited by the result would be semi-random,
determined by a compatibility algorithm. Though serviceable, a lot of
more casual players bemoaned how difficult is was to learn and master
this mechanic. Since it was necessary to do this in order to remain
stronger than the enemies, it was a valid complaint.

SMT IV
greatly improves the usability of demon fusion, with the intention of
giving players a greater degree of control. First off, instead of
needing to go to a specific location, players can perform fusion at
any time by accessing the main menu. The other major improvements is
that the resulting demons skillset is determined by the player. Given
the list of the demon's initial skills, and the list of every skill
the parents know, players can select the skillset of the result.

Such
changes are already a massive upgrade over the old methods, but the
improvements extend further. Rather than having to laboriously go
through every possible combination to figure out what players want to
fuse together, SMT IV utilizes a search function. When the player
enters the fusion menu, a list of options appears on screen. These
choices all represent all the possible filters that can be used in
the search. They range from the inclusion/exclusion of specific
demons in the fusion, to specific races, elemental affinities, or
skills. It is even possible to include demons from the Demonic
Compendium in the list of fusion fodder. The results will be listed
in the form of what demons can be made, given the current criteria,
and the list of all combinations that will lead to each possible
result. Once the fusion combination, and the result's initial skill
set, have been determined, then the fusion will commence. As a result
of all of these changes, players have a large degree of freedom in
how their party develops, more so than in any SMT game before SMT IV.
This turning away from random number generators in fusion grants
great leeway in how the system works, and even unskilled players will
quickly be able to make useful demons in this manner.

Other
anti-frustration features include the ability to save anywhere,
without needing to find a dedicated save point. At the same time, the
game only gives the player two save slots, so some discretion must be
advised on how often and where one saves their game. And even should
players die in battle, that may not necessarily mean game over. For a
small fee, the ferryman Charon will return the protagonist to the
world of the living, just before they died. Should the fee be too
high, it can be placed on a tab. Upon another death, if the player
does not have enough money to pay off the current death, along with
the tab, it will be a Game Over. The game is willing to give players
leeway, when this is taken into consideration along with changes to
demon fusion. However, because of that, it demands more from them in
the middle of a fight.

While
this is a very accessible SMT game, it is still an SMT game. Battles
will often be decided quickly and decisively, thanks to the Press
Turn System. Like in previous entries in the franchise, this system
rewards smart play and punishes mistakes by giving or removing turns
to both the player and the enemy. In order to further this
reward/punishment dynamic, a mechanic was added called “Smirk”.
If the protagonist or one of his demons exploits an enemy weakness
(or blocks/dodges an attack), there is a chance they will smirk. When
that happens, their attack power, accuracy, critical chance, and
dodge rate are all greatly increased, and any attacks against their
weakness are an automatic miss until their next turn. While this
bonus is powerful, enemies and bosses can (and will) also gain smirk
when they exploit the player's weaknesses. In this way, it becomes
even more crucial for players to both discover and exploit enemy
vulnerabilities while covering their own.

In any
case, most battles, even boss battles, do not take very long. It is
relatively easy to see whether or not the player is likely to win a
battle by just looking at the state of the battlefield. It is
interesting how the convenience features both have the potential to
attract many new fans to SMT from the likes of Persona, while also
having a chance to alienate them if they come unprepared. Likewise,
classic SMT fans may pridefully scorn the convenience features, but
enjoy how battles play out.

The
story also has the potential to be equally divisive. While the actual
story is not worth talking about too much, one of the important
factors is that the player is regularly forced to make choices during
dialog. Each of these choices shifts their alignment more towards
Law, representing a desire to maintain the status quo, or Chaos,
representing a desire to impose great change. The three companions
that join the protagonist for most of the adventure each represent a
viewpoint along this scale: One of Law, Chaos, and Neutrality.
Whatever the player's alignment is at the start of the endgame will
determine which ending is attained.

There is
nothing inherently wrong with this idea, as archaic as it is.
However, the execution has a major flaw. Said flaw is that there are
many events in the game, required to complete the story, that affect
the alignment of the protagonist. For example, accepting one quest as
a part of the main plot moves the player closer to Law. However, if
the quest is refused, the quest giver will simply tell the player
that they will be here if they change their mind. No progress can be
made until the quest, and resulting alignment change, is accepted. On
the whole, the sum of these events skews heavily towards Law, which
means one practically needs a walkthrough in order to be Neutal. For
Chaos, it is necessary to heavily commit to Chaos at the start of the
game. Since, like most SMT games, Law and Chaos are both different
forms of suck, Neutral is clearly the only good ending. This leads to
a lot of needless frustration.

On top
of that, the characters themselves rarely ever feel like nuanced,
dynamic people. Even in the case of the protagonist's friends, most
NPCs in the game act more along the lines of caricatures, designed to
embody and spout their given life philosophies. For players used to
the type of characterization seen in Persona 3 and Persona 4, this
can be very disappointing. However, classic SMT fans will probably
come in expecting this. Combined with the impact on alignment, the
story is very hit-or-miss. I did not mind it, but nor can I say that
I thought it was particularly good.

Overall,
Shin Megami Tensei represents an intriguing and enjoyable compromise
between the notoriously difficult SMT games, and the more
approachable Persona games. As someone who enjoyed both, this was a
game that entertained me thoroughly. The fusion system is, hands
down, the best fusion system that has ever been in an ATLUS game,
with a great combat system to boot. Having said that, it is not for
everyone. Fans of one franchise looking to break into the other
franchise, or those simply looking for an alternative to more
slower-paced RPGs, will find themselves welcome. If you consider
yourself in any one of these categories, I would strongly recommend
giving this game a try. Who knows? It might hook you as much as it
did me.